The interplay between extrinsic and intrinsic controls in determining floodplain wetland characteristics in the South African drylands

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms

Volumn 42, Issue 7, 2017, Pages 1092-1109

  Larkin, Zacchary T ^a   Ralph, Timothy J ^a   Tooth, Stephen ^b,c   McCarthy, Terence S ^c  

^a MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^b ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

Author keywords

alluvial river; avulsion; downstream changes; drylands; wetlands

Indexed keywords

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY; BANKS (BODIES OF WATER); CATCHMENTS; CLIMATE CHANGE; FLOODS; LITHOLOGY; RUNOFF; SEDIMENT TRANSPORT; WETLANDS;

ALLUVIAL RIVER; AVULSION; DOWNSTREAM CHANGES; DRY LAND; ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS; FLOODPLAIN MORPHOLOGY; FLOODPLAIN WETLANDS; INCREASING ARIDITIES;

RIVERS;

ALLUVIAL DEPOSIT; ARIDITY; AVULSION; CATCHMENT; ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS; FLOODPLAIN; WETLAND;

SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 85007246724     PISSN: 01979337     EISSN: 10969837     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/esp.4075     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Arcement GJ, Schneider VR. 1989. Guide for Selecting Manning's Roughness Coefficients for Natural Channels and Flood Plains, Water Supply paper, United States Geological Survey; 2339. US Government Printing Office: Washington, DC.
2. Bjerklie DM. 2007. Estimating the bankfull velocity and discharge for rivers using remotely sensed river morphology information. Journal of Hydrology 341: 144–155. DOI:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2007.04.011.
3. Boardman J, Parsons AJ, Holland R, Holmes PJ, Washington R. 2003. Development of badlands and gullies in the Sneeuberg, Great Karoo, South Africa. Catena 50: 165–184. DOI:10.1016/S0341-8162(02)00144-3.
4. Bull WB. 1997. Discontinuous ephemeral streams. Geomorphology 19: 227–276. DOI:10.1016/S0341-8162(02)00144-3.
5. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). 1999. Water Resource Protection Policy Implementations: Resource Directed Measures for Protection of Water Resources, Case study catchment A23+, Pienaars River, Appendix GW1. DWAF: Pretoria; 20–27.
6. Department of Water Affairs Hydrological Services. 2015. Hydrological Services – Surface Water (Data, Dams, Floods and Flows). https://www.dwa.gov.za/Hydrology/ [22 May 2015].
7. Finlayson B, Kenyon C. 2007. Lake Nuga Nuga: a levee-dammed lake in central Queensland, Australia. Geographical Research 45: 246–261. DOI:10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00458.x.
8. Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD). 2011. Gauteng State of the Environment Report 2011. Gauteng Provincial Government: Johannesburg.
9. Gore D, Brierley G, Pickard J, Jansen J. 2000. Anatomy of a floodout in semi-arid eastern Australia. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie 122: 113–139.
10. Grenfell MC, Ellery W, Grenfell SE. 2008. Tributary valley impoundment by trunk river floodplain development: a case study from the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg foothills, eastern South Africa. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 33: 2029–2044. DOI:10.1002/esp.1652.
11. Grenfell S, Ellery W, Grenfell M. 2009. Geomorphology and dynamics of the Mfolozi River floodplain, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Geomorphology 107: 226–240. DOI:10.1016/j.geomorph.2008.12.011.
12. Grenfell S, Grenfell M, Rowntree K, Ellery W. 2014. Fluvial connectivity and climate: A comparison of channel pattern and process in two climatically contrasting fluvial sedimentary systems in South Africa. Geomorphology 205: 142–154. DOI:10.1016/j.geomorph.2008.12.011.
13. Hesse PP, Ralph TJ. 2011. Buckiinguy Wetland Geomorphic Mapping and Sediment Analysis, Access Macquarie Limited Report for the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. NSW Office of Environment and Heritage: Sydney.
14. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2013. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge; 1535 pp.
15. Joubert R, Ellery W. 2013. Controls on the formation of Wakkerstroom Vlei, Mpumalanga province, South Africa. African Journal of Aquatic Science 38: 135–151. DOI:10.2989/16085914.2012.762897.
16. Keen-Zebert A, Tooth S, Rodnight H, Duller G, Roberts H, Grenfell M. 2013. Late Quaternary floodplain reworking and the preservation of alluvial sedimentary archives in unconfined and confined river valleys in the eastern interior of South Africa. Geomorphology 185: 54–66. DOI:10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.12.004.
17. Larkin ZT, Tooth S, Ralph TJ, Duller GAT, McCarthy T, Keen-Zebert A, Humphries M. In review. Timescales, mechanisms, and controls of incisional avulsions in floodplain wetlands: Insights from the Tshwane River, semiarid South Africa.
18. Marais E, Peacock F. 2008. The Chamberlain Guide to Birding. Mirafra Publishing: Pretoria.
19. Marren PM, McCarthy TS, Tooth S, Brandt D, Stacey GG, Leong A, Spottiswoode B. 2006. A comparison of mud- and sand-dominated meanders in a downstream coarsening reach of the mixed bedrock-alluvial Klip River, eastern Free State, South Africa. Sedimentary Geology 190: 213–226. DOI:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2006.05.014.
20. McCarthy TS, Ellery WN. 1998. The Okavango Delta. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 53: 157–182. DOI:10.1080/00359199809520384.
21. McCarthy TS, Tooth S, Jacobs Z, Rowberry MD, Thompson M, Brandt D, Hancox PJ, Marren PM, Woodborne S, Ellery WN. 2011. The origin and development of the Nyl River floodplain wetland, Limpopo Province, South Africa: trunk–tributary river interactions in a dryland setting. South African Geographical Journal 93: 172–190. DOI:10.1080/03736245.2011.619324.
22. McCarthy TS, Tooth S, Kotze DC, Collins NB, Wandrag G, Pike T. 2010. The role of geomorphology in evaluating remediation options for floodplain wetlands: the case of Ramsar-listed Seekoeivlei, eastern South Africa. Wetlands Ecology and Management 18: 119–134. DOI:10.1007/s11273-009-9153-7.
23. Merritt DM, Wohl EE. 2003. Downstream hydraulic geometry and channel adjustment during a flood along an ephemeral, arid-region drainage. Geomorphology 52: 165–180. DOI:10.1080/03736245.2011.619324.
24. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Wetlands and Water. World Resources Institute: Washington, DC.
25. Mitsch WJ, Gosselink JG. 2000. The value of wetlands: importance of scale and landscape setting. Ecological Economics 35: 25–33. DOI:10.1016/S0921-8009(00)00165-8.
26. O'Brien P, Burne R. 1994. The Great Cumbung Swamp – terminus of the low-gradient Lachlan River, Eastern Australia. AGSO Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics 15: 223–234.
27. Pietsch TJ, Nanson GC. 2011. Bankfull hydraulic geometry; the role of in-channel vegetation and downstream declining discharges in the anabranching and distributary channels of the Gwydir distributive fluvial system, southeastern Australia. Geomorphology 129: 152–165. DOI:10.1016/S0921-8009(00)00165-8.
28. Ralph TJ, Hesse PP. 2010. Downstream hydrogeomorphic changes along the Macquarie River, southeastern Australia, leading to channel breakdown and floodplain wetlands. Geomorphology 118: 48–64. DOI:10.1016/S0921-8009(00)00165-8.
29. Ralph TJ, Kobayashi T, García A, Hesse PP, Yonge D, Bleakley N, Ingleton T. 2011. Paleoecological responses to avulsion and floodplain evolution in a semi-arid Australian freshwater wetland. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 58: 75–91. DOI:10.1080/08120099.2010.534818.
30. Ralph TJ, Hesse P, Kobayashi T. 2015. Wandering wetlands: spatial patterns of historical channel and floodplain change in the Ramsar-listed Macquarie Marshes, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research. 67: 782–802. DOI:10.1071/MF14251.
31. Rodnight H, Duller GAT, Tooth S, Wintle A. 2005. Optical dating of a scroll-bar sequence on the Klip River, South Africa, to derive the lateral migration rate of a meander bend. The Holocene 15: 802–811. DOI:10.1191/0959683605hl854ra.
32. Schumann RR. 1989. Morphology of Red Creek, Wyoming, an arid-region anastomosing channel system. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 14: 277–288. DOI:10.1002/esp.3290140404.
33. Tooth S. 2013. Dryland fluvial environments: assessing distinctiveness and diversity from a global perspective. In Fluvial Geomorphology, Shroder J (Editor in Chief), Wohl E (ed). Academic Press: San Diego, CA; 612–644.
34. Tooth S, Brandt D, Hancox PJ, McCarthy TS. 2004. Geological controls on alluvial river behaviour: a comparative study of three rivers on the South African Highveld. Journal of African Earth Sciences 38: 79–97. DOI:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2003.08.003.
35. Tooth S, McCarthy TS, Brandt D, Hancox PJ, Morris R. 2002a. Geological controls on the formation of alluvial meanders and floodplain wetlands: the example of the Klip River, eastern Free State, South Africa. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 27: 797–815. DOI:10.1002/esp.353.
36. Tooth S, McCarthy TS, Hancox P, Brandt D, Buckley K, Nortje E, McQuade S. 2002b. The geomorphology of the Nyl River and floodplain in the semi-arid Northern Province, South Africa. South African Geographical Journal 84: 226–237. DOI:10.1080/03736245.2002.9713774.
37. Tooth S, McCarthy TS, Rodnight H, Keen-Zebert A, Rowberry M, Brandt D. 2014. Late Holocene development of a major fluvial discontinuity in floodplain wetlands of the Blood River, eastern South Africa. Geomorphology 205: 128–141. DOI:10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.12.045.
38. Tooth S, McCarthy TS. 2007. Wetlands in drylands: geomorphological and sedimentological characteristics, with emphasis on examples from southern Africa. Progress in Physical Geography 31: 3–41. DOI:10.1177/0309133307073879.
39. Tooth S, Nanson GC. 2011. Distinctiveness and diversity of arid zone river systems. In Arid Zone Geomorphology: Process, Form and Change in Drylands, Thomas DSG (ed), third edn. John Wiley & Sons: Chichester; 269–300.
40. Tooth S, Rodnight H, Duller GAT, McCarthy TS, Marren PM, Brandt D. 2007. Chronology and controls of avulsion along a mixed bedrock-alluvial river. Geological Society of America Bulletin 119: 452–461. DOI:10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.12.045.
41. Tooth S, Rodnight H, McCarthy TS, Duller GAT, Grundling AT. 2009. Late Quaternary dynamics of a South African floodplain wetland and implications for assessing recent human impacts. Geomorphology 106: 278–291. DOI:10.1016/j.geomorph.2008.11.009.
42. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 1992. World Atlas of Desertification. Edward Arnold: London; 15–45.
43. Working for Wetlands. 2008. Borakalalo A23J – Wetland Rehabilitation Plan, Report No. L02218/180208/1. South African National Biodiversity Institute: Silverton.